“Critical Vote”:http://cascade.org/Advocacy/I-90.cfm. If you live in the King County area and think it’s great you can actually get across Lake Washington, start to panic.
Ron Sims and Connie Marshall both will vote on WSDOT and Sound Transit (ugh, oxymoron there!) plan to close the I-90 bike lanes for _two_ years and narrow it to just 8 feet.
Help, send them mail ASAP and tell them as describe on the cascade site:
WSDOT and Sound Transit are pushing a plan for the I-90 Bridge that’s unsafe for cyclists, pedestrians and neighborhoods. This plan, called “R8A,” would move buses out of the center lanes into a new, added outside lane.
The new lane would be created by narrowing and re-striping the existing lanes – including the bicycle and pedestrian path. This project:
* Could close the bicycle/pedestrian path for 2 years during construction – stranding hundreds of commuters.
* Is unsafe for bikers and walkers. I-90 is the only cross-lake bike/pedestrian path, and two-foot shoulders would put bicyclists and walkers dangerously close to cars and trucks.
* Puts more cars on the roads, and in our neighborhoods on both sides of the lake. The new lanes will encourage more people to drive, adding congestion to the streets where we live and where our children walk, bicycle and play.
Is bad for bus and car commuters. Substandard shoulders mean disabled vehicles will block traffic and increase commute times.
* Is dangerous. Narrower lanes significantly increase injury accidents for motorists (55+ more injury crashes per year.)
